- Lots of lies from executive group, company hasn't been in a growth mode in a long time but more in a defensive mode due to higher pricing than 85-90% of competitors
- Downsizing. From the first point I made, there has been multiple closings from factories to white collar offices. It is not safe and private equity is squeezing this company until it's dry. They even sold a factory that was performing very well after making it an objective of their salesmen to sell products from there, only to sell the company on a Friday and not even tell any of the workers. Workers affiliated with that factory got a phone call at 3:30 telling me them "We are the company that bought this factory, you work for us, here is your compensation package, take it or leave it"
- No upside when getting a promotion. I don't have ill will against older workers because in an industry like this, you learn the most from people like them and I'm thankful to have the opportunity. However, the company doesn't open up new positions that much unless someone leaves, and most often, they don't hire internally. They will hire outside because they can try to nab them on a lower salary.
- Clique/Management/Politics - This one is absolutely out of this world because it really does matter who you get as a boss and what they expose you to. Sadly to say, mine wasn't the best. Lots of fighting internally across metal cutting groups due to lack of communication and lack of common objectives, very dog eat dog.
- Efficiency - Absolutely awful. This company has done nothing but have less workers, but it continues to get worse as they do not offer a good tech stack or any type of modern software other than the CRM to help with the job.
Overall, company is in a downturn. They do not have enough raw material to continue to producing for a large $2B company, but they do not even have enough to satisfy current customers. Lead times are over 30 days at this point, so no one can receive their product any faster than 1 month after IT STARTS TO BE MADE. This can mean multiple month waits for customers when before, it might have been a couple weeks at max or same month shipping. They can not compete in the modern world and is getting torn apart by the competitors from other nations.
There are so many managers and directors in this company who are just riding it out into the sunset of retirement, but doing absolutely nothing to prepare the other workers for their departure or what is occurring, let alone transfer knowledge. Like I said, I got lucky with the people I am with, others? Not much so. Kennametal might have a slow decline or a rapid one, I'm not sure yet. They lean too much on the big guys to keep the money rolling in while continuously ignoring or downplaying the smaller accounts who could grow into bigger ones.
Very stingy with discounts. Sometimes we would give-up to 40% for bigger and established customers, but smaller customers couldn't. If you give a 40% discount, why not price your products lower since you already know it's significantly overpriced?
We only have about a 5-10% runtime premium for a lot of our metal cutting products, and it seems that people are figuring out. Even with a tariff that doubles Kennametal products, Kennametal is still losing in about 70% of situations due to bad management and poor lead times/price.
Another thing - we don't have minorities unless it is outsourced to a country, you already know which one. I don't even find American minorities, I knew one. This company kind of seems a bit off if you know what I mean. Old white boys club.
This company is failing and it will be a slow painful death. It used to be 30,000 people here, now down to barely 10,000, I think close to 8,000 after being sold to private equity? They can't get out of their own way since the company was sold and fight each other at the highest level and slow down every process of this company.
